Important new legal frameworks, laws, regulations, and financial structures in the USA have emerged from concerns about traffic growth, congestion and environmental damage. This paper discusses several important steps that have been taken, to coordinate long-term land use planning, air quality controls, and transport capital facility planning, through a regional and cumulative impact perspective. It also considers various possible alternative policy approaches. The US Federal Government's ISTEA Act of 1992 and its 1990 amendments to the Clean Air Act provide a new framework for applying transport and land use controls. State planning emphasises regional transport corridors and centres, and achieves regional integrated planning through a special process of negotiation. New legislation in many US states requires city-council-regional cooperation in setting transport-land use-air quality controls. A regional consensus approach can be facilitated by developing alternative regional development scenarios, focussing around different crises. Policy approaches considered include: (1) structural alternatives; (2) public finance alternatives; (3) regulatory controls; (4) growth management techniques; and (5) emerging approaches in US states for comprehensive planning for traffic congestion. A table shows the conformity of four alternative development scenarios with stated planning goals and US-wide planning policies.
Abstract